Structured Settlement Funding

Five years ago in South Carolina, a female construction worker was working outside a building on scaffolding erected around a job she was finishing up. She fell off the scaffold and injured her spine so severely that she could no longer walk. She was laid up for a long time with staggering medical bills and a mountain of household bills she was unable to pay for. In her dilapidated state she could not move around or even take care of ordinary household chores. Her pain was so bad she can barely move from side to side let alone do daily care things for herself.

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She sued her employer and the landlord of the building where the work was being done. She won a verdict of more than $2 million. While no amount of money can fully compensate someone after an accident like this, you might think that at least she would have enough to live on for a long time or pay her overgrowing mountain of bills. She decided to forgo the structured settlement payments and take a lump sum.

Benefits of a Structured Settlement:

Reduces the potential for mismanagement of funds.

Guaranteed to receive payments from a secure source, usually a life insurance company.

It offers more protection from unscrupulous scam artists or market downturns.

Provide a steady stream of income for a certain period and make overall income management easier.

The amount one receives through deferred payments is greater because there is less taxation.

Unfortunately, mismanagement and bad business decisions would plague her from day one of her receiving her settlement. Within a few years, all the money was gone. A “friend” convinced her to invest $1 million in a new bar in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Sooner than expected, the mismanagement of funds and poor promotional skills lead to a quick depletion of resources and loss of intended operating revenue. The bar quickly went bankrupt and she lost her entire investment. She also made some bad choices of her own. She bought two expensive cars and had them specially outfitted for her. But she neglected to take out insurance on them, so when she wrecked both cars, they were both a total loss and she got nothing for them. As her last act of financial folly, she bought two big houses next door to each other. One was for her and the other was for her sister, who had promised to take care of her.

Unfortunately, she put the house’s title in her sister’s name. After a short time she and her sister had a falling out and that strained relations between the siblings. The sister then sold the house, and moved away. Unable to afford her own house payments, she has now had to move out of her house. She is now renting out her house and living in an assisted care facility trying to make ends meet on disability benefit payments.